September/October 2002
The potential health dangers of processing products that contain beryllium have made this metal a growing concern for scrap processors, brokers, and consumers.
By Robert L. Reid
How much beryllium does your facility process? It sounds like a simple question, but it’s not—and the wrong answer can be dangerous and costly. One specialty alloy recycler in Houston, for instance, apparently didn’t know it was processing beryllium-containing material and ended up settling a lawsuit for $1 million filed by an employee who reportedly later died due to beryllium exposure.
Likewise, an electronics recycler in Maryland didn’t realize how much beryllium it was processing until one of its largest customers complained. This complaint also made the recycler realize that it might be contaminating its own facility by unknowingly shredding beryllium products. Periodic air sampling and a new training program quickly followed.
Once an essential element in winning the Cold War—beryllium (identified as Be on the Periodic Table of Elements) is used to manufacture nuclear weapons—this lightweight, nonmagnetic metal is a so-called exotic metal prized by industry for its strength, hardness, and ability to conduct heat as well as electricity when alloyed with copper, nickel, or aluminum. It is also found as pure metal and in beryllium-oxide ceramics.
Any form of beryllium-containing scrap, though, can raise red flags because of the incurable lung condition known as chronic beryllium disease, or berylliosis, which can develop in certain individuals who inhale beryllium particulates. That’s why scrap processors, brokers, and consumers across the country are working with suppliers to keep beryllium out of scrap shipments, using measures that range from sharing information on beryllium-containing products to writing “no-beryllium” contracts, rejecting loads, and even restricting who can sell them scrap.
Despite these efforts, the problem is reportedly growing for several reasons: For one, it’s hard for recyclers to determine if a product contains beryllium without using metal-analysis equipment. Also, beryllium is finding its way into more and more products, notes the U.S. Geological Survey in its latest Minerals Yearbook report on beryllium. These products, sources indicate, range from general items (such as clips, strip products, rods, wires, bars, tubes, plates, billets, and castings) to specific devices in automotive electronics (including ignition systems and air-bag sensors), computers (especially connectors and heat sinks on circuitboards), as well as cell phones, aerospace equipment, and various military scrap. Old-style rotary dial telephones also contain beryllium copper alloys, as do some golf clubs and even eyeglass frames. Another factor could be that more products are being recycled and, therefore, more beryllium-containing materials are being encountered, suggests Brush Wellman Inc. (Cleveland), the world’s largest beryllium producer.
An Unknown Risk
The above factors make it difficult for recyclers to protect their employees from exposure and ensure that they don’t accidentally ship beryllium to consumers who don’t want it. At the same time, some consumers actively seek beryllium scrap—under certain conditions (see “Selling Beryllium Scrap” on page 30).
On the safety issue, recyclers at ISRI’s 2002 convention in Las Vegas heard firsthand how to work safely around beryllium from Brush Wellman. Ted Knudson, the firm’s manager of product stewardship, explained that beryllium-containing materials are safe in their solid form but pose a risk to certain persons when-ever a dust or particulate is formed. Thus, various processing methods used by scrap recyclers—or their consumers—such as crushing, shredding, grinding, shot-blasting, welding, sparking, melting, or casting beryllium products can produce potentially hazardous particulates.
In one case, a former scrap processing plant in Houston reportedly exposed a worker to beryllium dust particles without even knowing it. At this specialty alloy recycler, grinding operations to identify incoming material and procedures used to blend various metallic powders created clouds of dust that spread beryllium throughout the plant, depositing the toxic material on rafters and beams nearly 20 feet off the ground, says John R. Millard, the attorney for a shear operator who contracted and later died from berylliosis. The recycler’s insurance company eventually settled the worker’s lawsuit for $1 million, Millard says.
Though Millard says company records indicated that the recycler had at various times received shipments of pure beryllium—which the recycler said wasn’t processed in any fashion—it did apparently process other materials that it didn’t realize contained the toxic metal.
These materials included beryllium copper alloys, high-cobalt steel castings, copper-nickel scrap, and an alloy called “Elgilloy,” depositions noted. Such materials “if processed at the plant, could result in significant beryllium exposures to workers,” stated a report by John Martyny, a certified industrial hygienist with National Jewish Medical and Research Center (Denver), which is considered the country’s leading authority on beryllium diseases. “Very little grinding would result in very high beryllium levels, even in alloys with low amounts of beryllium,” noted Martyny, who examined the site for Millard.
Knowing what materials contain beryllium is critical because even small amounts of the metal’s particulates can pose a problem. OSHA’s current permissible exposure limit (PEL) for beryllium is 2 micrograms per cubic meter of air over an eight-hour shift, though the agency is reexamining the PEL to see if it should be stricter. Even the current limit, however, represents an amount that “would not be visible as a dust to the naked eye,” Martyny stated. Thus, “the absence of a visible dust does not offer protection to employees.”
“That’s what makes getting out the message about this so important,” Millard stresses, “because you can have other facilities that are well-intentioned also having their people work with beryllium and not know it.”
Keep in mind, though, that exposure to beryllium particulates does not necessarily mean a person will become sensitized to beryllium—a step that’s required to develop the disease, notes Brush Wellman’s Knudson, who is also a certified industrial hygienist. Likewise, sensitization doesn’t automatically lead to berylliosis. Even testing positive for the disease doesn’t mean a person will definitely develop symptoms, Knudson says.
Two individuals exposed to exactly the same levels of beryllium might experience entirely different outcomes, with one person becoming ill and the other person being unaffected, he explains.
Indeed, only about 1 to 6 percent of individuals who are exposed to beryllium will develop chronic beryllium disease, notes the National Jewish Medical and Research Center. An acute form of beryllium disease can develop quite rapidly, though “improved industrial protective measures” have made this form of the disease rare, the center says. By contrast, chronic beryllium disease is slow to develop and might not be detected until many years after the person was exposed.
So if your operation does process beryllium scrap, make sure employees are protected by safeguards ranging from personal protection equipment such as respirators to engineering controls such as restricting work zones where beryllium products will be processed and providing the proper exhaust ventilation, advises Knudson. In addition, he asserts, “the importance of housekeeping can’t be stressed enough.” Avoid using compressed air, brooms, or conventional vacuums to clean work clothing or other surfaces, as this could increase exposure, he warns. Instead, use wet cleaning methods and vacuums with high efficiency particulate air (HEPA) filters.
Periodic air monitoring and medical surveillance of employees are other recommended safety measures.
A Difficult Search
When recyclers and consumers want to keep beryllium out of their operations, the first step is to identify which products contain the toxic metal. Unfortunately, there’s no cheap, easy way to do it.
For one thing, beryllium-containing products often resemble nonberyllium items. Beryllium copper scrap, for example, is easily confused with phosphor bronze, No. 2 copper, or hard brass, various recyclers note. Circuitboards that contain beryllium-alloyed or ceramic parts can look just like the ones that don’t, explains Steve Skurnac, president of Micro Metallics Inc. (San Jose, Calif.) and vice president of recycling for the company’s corporate parent, Toronto-based smelter Noranda Inc.
Even processors who recognize that beryllium copper can have a slightly different color than its copper or bronze cousins—and a different “springy” feel—concede that they’re probably prone to the same mistakes that everybody is in missorting it.
So how do you find the beryllium? One way is to use scientific testing equipment, which can identify beryllium through various assay methods. Sending samples of metal to a lab takes time, however, while buying the testing equipment can be expensive—ranging from $20,000 up to $150,000, users note. Moreover, the test procedures can be cumbersome and can even accidentally create a dust hazard if not conducted properly.
At electronics recycler Metech International Inc. (Mapleville, R.I.), “we always assume there’s some beryllium and we always test for it, but it’s not the easiest thing to test for,” says Andrew McManus, environmental engineer. As he explains, Metech does a special chemical test just for beryllium, separate from any other material it tests. That extra step “increases the cost and time involved, but it’s something you have to do—a cost of doing business,” he states.
Likewise, Utah Metal Works Inc. (Salt Lake City) takes special precautions to protect its workers by testing for beryllium using a lightwave spectrometer. The tests are conducted only in a controlled area, with proper ventilation and protective equipment for employees, says Chris Lewon, vice president. Perhaps half of all scrap plants focused on nonferrous metals will have equipment to test for beryllium, he estimates, while the other half—especially smaller yards—will not.
Jerry Simms, vice president of sales for Atlas Metal & Iron Corp. (Denver), sees the issue in terms of ISRI’s Design for Recycling movement. “I put the onus on the producers of the metal—they put the toxicity in the metal and it needs to be recycled at the end of its useful life. My issue for the producers is to find an easy test to clearly identify beryllium copper products in the general copper scrap mix. Until they can do that, there’s a big problem—when recyclers don’t know they have beryllium copper and they send it to a consumer, it’s going to be rejected.”
It’s also possible to ask scrap consumers for help, especially since they’re far more likely to have sophisticated assay equipment on hand. The brass purchaser at one consumer, for instance, will gladly test suspect material for recyclers—even before the recycler takes possession of the material.
“If a scrap dealer says he wants to buy 20,000 pounds of a particular item, but he’s not sure if it’s beryllium copper or not, I tell him to bring in a sample and we’ll test it,” the purchaser says. “Then we’ll both know what it is before he buys it and tries to ship it.”
A Cooperative Solution?
That sort of consumer/supplier cooperation could be key to resolving beryllium problems, especially since processors, brokers, and consumers across the nation are taking steps to ensure that the sources of their scrap either presort any beryllium products or exclude them entirely.
Utah Metal Works, for instance, works closely with the local machine shops that supply it with material that can include beryllium copper, notes Lewon. Fortunately, most of the beryllium copper comes already segregated at the source since the machine shops must identify potential beryllium products for their own processes. Still, roughly 10 percent of that source segregation results from Utah Metal Works’ own efforts, Lewon says.
On the other hand, a broker who had shipments rejected in the past because of beryllium contamination now writes into his Birch/Cliff contracts that all loads must be “free of beryllium copper.” Since he doesn’t test incoming material for beryllium, this broker simply won’t buy from certain customers—an approach mentioned by various processors and consumers as well, some of whom say they’ve stopped doing business with suppliers who couldn’t meet beryllium restrictions.
At Noranda, for instance, preventing beryllium exposure has been critical ever since an employee at its Horne smelting operation in Québec was diagnosed with berylliosis in 1998, says Steve Skurnac. An extensive and ongoing screening program followed in which more than 2,600 active employees and some 300 retirees have now undergone a blood test to determine beryllium sensitivity (called the beryllium lymphocyte proliferation test, or BeLPT). In its 2001 Sustainable Development Report, Noranda noted that it has found 21 confirmed cases of berylliosis involving four of its locations.
As a result, Noranda established a 200-ppm limit for beryllium on any inbound scrap—plus action levels that are even lower, leading to what one broker called essentially a “zero-tolerance” policy. The company also established its own No. 2 copper spec—called Maple—to help keep beryllium copper out of its mix, Skurnac says.
In addition, Noranda trained employees how to visually identify electronic scrap that’s likely to contain beryllium; regularly tests all suspect material, especially scrap from a potential new supplier; and created a CD filled with digital images of beryllium-containing scrap that it shares with suppliers to help them meet the 200-ppm restriction, Skurnac says. Further, Noranda monitors its relevant facilities for airborne beryllium on a monthly basis and can cross-check which materials from which suppliers were processed on any day the beryllium levels spike (usually, though, the levels are well within the company’s requirements, Skurnac notes).
These policies have forced Noranda to “suspend business with shippers who are unwilling to sort and/or deliver material consistent with our beryllium guidelines,” Skurnac says. Noranda will work with suppliers, however, to improve their beryllium efforts, he adds, and the company has even allowed some previously suspended shippers to again sell scrap to the company after they’d improved.
INERT Corp. (Hagerstown, Md.), formerly known as DMC, was never suspended as a shipper, but it did receive word in 2001 that Noranda was unhappy about beryllium levels in its scrap. “They said: ‘You’ve got to identify this and get it out of the mix because we don’t want to see it,’” explains Rick Schulman, INERT’s vice president and general manager.
That customer complaint also made Schulman realize that INERT might be exposing its own work force to beryllium dust since much of the material it received—and some that it sold to Noranda—was first run through a slow-speed shredder.
Fortunately, periodic air sampling that began after Noranda raised the beryllium issue has never shown an exposure problem at an INERT facility, Schulman says. To keep it that way, INERT has talked with electronics manufacturers to find out where they used beryllium in their products. Plus, it developed a training program for identifying possible beryllium-containing scrap. Though this program was based on Noranda’s digital photos, INERT added a 3-D touch—a bulletin board containing actual beryllium parts, along with information on their beryllium levels, so that workers can compare suspect material with real-life examples.
Unfortunately, Schulman adds, “nothing ever looks alike in electronics recycling.” So the company’s philosophy on suspected beryllium parts became: When in doubt, pull it out. While this means that some nonberyllium scrap gets yanked along with the problem material, Schulman would much rather be safe than sorry.
“I don’t even know what this is costing me,” he says, “but I don’t think I have a choice.”
Selling Beryllium Scrap
What can you do if you find yourself with beryllium-containing scrap?
Brush Wellman will gladly buy beryllium copper scrap—at a good price, sources note. The company even offers a toll-free number—800/289-2328—for those with beryllium copper to sell.
Recyclers complain, though, that in recent years Brush Wellman stopped accepting mixed scrap. Now, it only wants segregated beryllium products, which recyclers say makes it harder for them to find a home for loads of mixed copper that were rejected because of beryllium contamination.
Brush Wellman, like other recyclers, says it only wants segregated scrap, which is necessary to meet its quality requirements. Clean beryllium copper can be charged right back into the company’s furnaces, says Ted Knudson, manager of product stewardship. That’s no different than other consumers’ concerns, he notes, though he adds that Brush Wellman can “provide information on other outlets” for beryllium scrap that it can’t use itself—just call the 800 number.
Selenium—More ‘Exotic’ Trouble?
Selenium, like beryllium, is considered an “exotic” metal—and it could pose similar problems for scrap recyclers, at least as far as potentially contaminating a consumer’s facility.
Largely used in electronics and photocopying components, selenium is also added to manganese to be alloyed into steel and aluminum. When the products made from those metals are melted for recycling in a consumer’s furnace, the selenium—which is regulated as a heavy metal by OSHA and a ground-water/drinking water hazard by EPA—can be released into the environment.
“Selenium volatilizes at the temperatures in melts,” which produces particulates that can be captured in baghouse dust from furnaces, explains Karen Hagelstein, senior environmental scientist for Times Ltd., an environmental consulting firm based in Sheridan, Wyo. If the baghouse dust contains more than 1 ppm of selenium, it must be treated as a hazardous waste, she notes.
That’s what happened to at least one consumer of aluminum scrap, Hagelstein says. High selenium levels in the company’s baghouse dust forced it to “handle the waste as a hazardous waste—it had to go to a RCRA landfill and cost them a lot more money.”
In addition, the firm had to begin health monitoring of its employees and hold hazardous waste training sessions. As a result, the consumer is considering a change in its scrap mix, comparing the selenium-containing manganese aluminum it currently uses with a selenium-free manganese aluminum scrap and dross, Hagelstein says.
Will the issue have repercussions for scrap processors? It’s hard to say, but Hagelstein indicates that other aluminum consumers could face similar baghouse-dust problems, which could put pressure on scrap processors and brokers to limit the amount of selenium-containing products they ship. Unfortunately, there’s no easy test to detect the presence of selenium in metal.
The best solution might be for aluminum and steel producers to avoid using selenium-manganese in their metals. That would require restricting use of Chinese manganese, which is the only major source that contains selenium, says Hagelstein, who has done consulting for a selenium-free manganese producer from South Africa. But China’s share of the manganese market is growing, she notes, which means the issue is unlikely to be resolved anytime soon.
Beryllium Resources
• Brush Wellman Inc. provides extensive information on safely handling beryllium products, including a Frequently Asked Questions section for alloy industry managers, workers, and customers; Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDSs) on beryllium products; and the Beryllium Consultant Network, a state-by-state listing of “professional industrial hygienists who have either attended an industrial hygiene training seminar on beryllium or have previous experience in controlling occupational exposure to beryllium.” Call 800/862-4118, or visit www.brushwellman.com.
• National Jewish Medical and Research Center has detailed information on berylliosis, the BeLPT blood test, and its Comprehensive Beryllium Program, which “offers a full array of services to thoroughly and cost-effectively evaluate and address beryllium risks.” Call 800-423-8891, ext. 1722, or visit www.nationaljewish.org/berylliosis.html.
• OSHA offers a wide range of information regarding beryllium and workplace safety on its Beryllium Technical Links Web site (www.osha-slc.gov/SLTC/beryllium/index.html). Documents include the agency’s 1999 hazard information bulletin on Preventing Adverse Health Effects From Exposure to Beryllium on the Job, a 59-page Beryllium Good Practice Guide from the Department of Energy, which has an extensive beryllium program due to the metal’s use in the nuclear weapons industry, and other links.
• The law office of John R. Millard, P.C., can discuss an industrial hygienist report detailing beryllium exposure hazards at one particular scrap processing facility in Houston. Call 877/395-8951. •
Robert L. Reid is managing editor of Scrap.